Section 127 (Part 1) Out of One's League

The Seven Cities Allied Forces.

The Wei family belonged to the bottom tier of the aristocratic families, yet their influence was still quite formidable.

When Lin Qiye, Chen Fan, and Alliance Leader Wang arrived, the head of the Wei family, accompanied by three Diamond-rank Walkers, came out to welcome them.

"Lord Alliance Leader!"

"Mm..."

The head of the Wei family seemed somewhat unwilling, but in the end, he had to submit. He lowered his head and bowed respectfully to Lin Qiye and Chen Fan.

"Hello, Mr. Lin."

"Hello, Mr. Chen."

Chen Fan smiled. This feeling was truly wonderful. Thinking back to when they were in Li City, they had merely been two nameless nobodies, unsure of whether they could even awaken as Walkers.

Yet, in such a short span of time, the two of them had come to a provincial capital city like Star City, becoming esteemed guests of the top-tier factions, treated with utmost courtesy even by Diamond-rank Walkers.

Chen Fan nodded slightly inwardly. Indeed, the scenery depended entirely on the altitude at which one stood.

However, Lin Qiye, standing beside him, remained completely unfazed. He simply produced a name list.

"Round up all three hundred and ninety-odd fellows on this list. Let not a single one escape."

The head of the Wei family took the list and glanced at it, his expression turning one of sheer astonishment.

Because among these names were his own biological son, his relatives, and the trusted confidants of other Diamond-rank Walkers—the list covered virtually his entire inner circle!

"This... this... could this lead to some complications?"

"How could that be? These are all our..."

Lin Qiye impatiently waved a hand.

"Hurry up and go. Do not waste my time."

As he spoke, Lin Qiye continued browsing through rows of information on his tablet computer.

The face of the Wei family head flushed crimson.

"You..."

He wanted to retort, but was sharply rebuked by Alliance Leader Wang.

"Go quickly! Do not let a single person get away. Round them all up!"

With that, Alliance Leader Wang printed out a dozen copies of the name list and swiftly dispatched teams to apprehend the suspicious individuals.

Half an hour later, all the suspects were brought before them.

"What is the meaning of this? Why have we been arrested?"

"We are in the middle of handling crucial matters!"

"If this causes any delays, who will take the responsibility?"

The group of suspects murmured in discord, their words laced with grievance and complaint.

Lin Qiye chuckled lightly. His immortal divine sense had already spread out. At the same time, his Grievance Immortal Pupils opened, shrouding strands of invisible resentment over his immortal divine sense.

His divine sense coiled around the three hundred-odd demons.

Suddenly, the three hundred-odd demons felt their sea of consciousness tremble.

The next second, piercing screams rose and fell in succession.

As boundless resentment flooded into their seas of consciousness, their mental states collapsed completely.

The three hundred-odd demons fell to the ground, curling up like boiled prawns amidst their agonizing shrieks.

Green blood began to ooze from their facial orifices.

The auras within their bodies destabilized and disintegrated at a visible rate.

Their skin began to crack and peel away, revealing bizarre green scales underneath.

For a moment, the entire scene resembled some kind of fanatical ritual.

This abrupt turn of events startled everyone present.

The heart of the Wei family head plummeted to the abyss, his face written with utter shock and horror.

"They are demons! They were actually demons all along?!"

Alliance Leader Wang’s pupils contracted violently. He stared at Lin Qiye with a pounding heart, a creeping numbness washing over his scalp.

"I couldn't detect the demons' disguises at all. If not for the assistance of this young man before me, these demons would only have multiplied, eventually usurping our positions and turning the entire Seven Cities Allied Forces into a stronghold for demons!"

At that moment, Alliance Leader Wang could not help breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Many thanks, Mr. Lin! If not for you, we would truly have faced a massive disaster!"

Alliance Leader Wang let out a long breath, deeply shaken as he gazed at the demons before him.

Right now, the demons glared at Lin Qiye with bitter hatred.

"Why! Why could you see through our disguise?!"

"We were completely flawless! Not even peak Diamond-rank Walkers, nor even Immortal-level powerhouses, could pierce through our disguise!"

The demons gnashed their teeth in fury.

In response, Lin Qiye remained expressionless, merely glancing sideways at Alliance Leader Wang.

"Shall I kill them, or leave a few for your research?"

Alliance Leader Wang exhaled softly and swiftly took action. He executed 99% of the demons on the spot, leaving only a dozen alive. After crippling their limbs, he threaded chains forged from blazing sun stone through their bones to lock them away.

Only after finishing all of this did Alliance Leader Wang wipe the cold sweat from his forehead and face.

"Mr. Lin, would you mind helping the Wang family conduct an inspection as well? Could you thoroughly investigate all the upper, middle, and lower echelons of the Wang family? I would be endlessly grateful and willing to pay an additional ten million wandering points as compensation."

The scene just now had driven Alliance Leader Wang's anxiety to the extreme. He was unwilling to waste even a fraction of a second more, terrified that his own family members and valued confidants might have succumbed to demonic corruption.

Seeing Alliance Leader Wang act with such eagerness, Lin Qiye smiled.

"The Wang family does indeed have quite a few demons. Transfer the points!"

Lin Qiye was very straightforward. With extra wandering points to be made, why turn them down?

Alliance Leader Wang was overjoyed.

Within mere seconds, ten million wandering points were deposited into Lin Qiye's account.

At that moment, Lin Qiye's wandering points soared to an astonishing 135.89 million.

In other words, his wandering points had exceeded one hundred million!

A small milestone achieved just like that!

Lin Qiye smiled faintly, while Alliance Leader Wang laughed heartily.

"This way, Mr. Lin! Please, Mr. Lin! Please, Mr. Chen!"

With that, Alliance Leader Wang graciously yielded his luxurious carriage for Lin Qiye and Chen Fan to ride in.

While Lin Qiye and his companions made their special trip to the Wang family, the entire Star City was thrown into severe turbulence.

"Just the Wei family alone rooted out over three hundred and ninety demons?! And these demons possessed terrifying concealment abilities, eluding even the peak Diamond-rank Alliance Leader Wang."

"The Wei family is only the seventh faction of the Seven Cities Allied Forces. By that projection, could there be thousands of demons hidden throughout the entire Seven Cities Allied Forces?"

"And the Ideal Island, the Light and Shadow Cult, and the Technology Association—all of them harbor massive numbers of demons!"

"That means the entire Star City has actually been severely and deeply infiltrated!"

"Hiss—"

The Walkers of Star City were struck with terror.

Worse still, everyone grew paranoid and suspicious, eyeing everyone around them with dread, wondering if their companions were secretly demons.

"What should we do? There are demons besieging the city from the outside, and demons infiltrating from within. Is Star City doomed to fall?"

"No, it won't! Didn't they say that the great Lin Qiye already rooted out three hundred demons in a single day? As long as he is here, surely he can purge all the hidden demons lurking within Star City!"

Some approached despair, while others pinned all their hopes entirely on Lin Qiye.

While the ordinary Walkers of Star City fell into panic, the upper echelons of the major factions were similarly shaken to their core.

...

Technology Association, Star City Branch.

A gathering of top executives and higher-ups from the Technology Association convened in a single hall.

"Star City is now completely surrounded by demons. If internal problems break out before reinforcements arrive, none of us will survive!"

"What can we do now? The only person capable of seeing through the demons' disguises is Lin Qiye. We offended him earlier; can we really expect him to help us out of the goodness of his heart?"

"You have the nerve to say that! If you hadn't rushed over to his residence to stir up trouble, we wouldn't have landed in such an awkward predicament!"

"Hmph! Speak with some conscience. When I was assigned to go capture him, you were the very first person to stand up and agree!"

"You..."

"Enough! Stop arguing!"

While the higher-ups of the Technology Association shouted at each other with flushed faces inside the hall, the Chief Executive finally furrowed his brows and barked a reprimand.

"Although we had some unpleasant friction with Lin Qiye, no irremediable damage was done after all."

"I heard that Lin Qiye collected seventy million wandering points from the Seven Cities Allied Forces, plus information regarding that primordial divine kingdom, and he set aside his grievances to take action."

"Thus, Lin Qiye is not a person obsessed with grudges. As long as the price is right, he will lend a hand."

The Chief Executive smiled faintly. He preferred dealing with people of such character. After all, aside from racial enmity, what conflict in this world could not be minimized from a major issue into a minor one, and then resolved entirely?

The Chief Executive cast his gaze upon the seven Diamond-rank law enforcers who had previously gone to make trouble for Lin Qiye.

"I will personally lead a team shortly to apologize to Lin Qiye."

"Remember to prepare some welcoming gifts. Let's prepare sixty-six Platinum-grade weapons!"

"Oh... right, I recall... there is a young blacksmith by Lin Qiye's side who originally came from the Technology Association, isn't there? What was her name again?"

"Qi Baishi..."

"Who is Qi Baishi's master? Accompany me to visit Lin Qiye and put in a good word."

The Executive muttered thoughtfully.

Beside him, Ding Wen, the mentor of Qi Baishi, froze.

He thought to himself that the Chief Executive truly lived up to his title, aware even of such a minor detail.

Ding Wen stroked his graying beard and stepped forward voluntarily.

"Chief, it is me..."

"Qi Baishi is my disciple."

"I never imagined that this foolish disciple of mine would actually be whisked away by such a monstrous talent like Lin Qiye. Back then, Lin Qiye was merely a Platinum-rank Walker."

"When he came to me to forge weapons, I wouldn't even spare him a second glance..."

Ding Wen shook his head and sighed.

The times changed far too quickly. Two days ago, Lin Qiye was someone he couldn't be bothered with; in the blink of an eye, he was someone Ding Wen could no longer hope to reach.

Ding Wen felt a wave of helplessness.

"My attitude toward Lin Qiye and that foolish girl wasn't particularly pleasant back then. Will my going there provoke their resentment?"

The old man felt somewhat apprehensive.

"It'll be fine. Come along with us; we can always smooth things over."

Consequently, the Chief Executive led a delegation toward Ideal Island.

Wen Shuhong received the group.

"Well, what wind blows the Chief Executive of the Star City Technology Association here today?"

The Chief Executive: "...We would like to speak with Lin Qiye."

Wen Shuhong: "Lin Qiye is not here. He went to the Wang family and might return around noon."

The Chief Executive: "Then we request an audience with Qi Baishi..."

Wen Shuhong raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"This is Qi Baishi's mentor, Ding Wen. He wishes to see Qi Baishi."

Wen Shuhong raised an eyebrow, then sank into deep thought.

Back then, he had taken Lin Qiye to forge weapons, only to be turned away at the door. Fortunately, they eventually found Qi Baishi.

It seemed at the time that Qi Baishi's mentor hadn't treated her very well.

Even so, Wen Shuhong decided to relay the message to Qi Baishi.

Qi Baishi: "My mentor? And the Chief Executive of the Technology Association? They want to see me?"

"Then... I... I..."

Wen Shuhong: "You can see them. After all, you still need to study the knowledge of the Technology Association. They are probably here to butter you up right now, and as the saying goes, one does not hit a smiling face."

"Go ahead!"

Qi Baishi looked puzzled: "Why would they want to butter me up? Oh—"

"They want to butter me up so they can butter up Brother Qiye?"

Qi Baishi came to a sudden realization.

"Then what should I do so I don't compromise Brother Qiye's dignity and prestige?"

Wen Shuhong smiled.

"Do as you please. Little Qiye's prestige is already maxed out; no matter what you do, you won't diminish it."

Qi Baishi was rendered speechless.

Indeed, that seemed to be the case!

After all, the Alliance Leader of the Seven Cities Allied Forces had to personally invite Brother Qiye to take action and was willing to pay a heavenly price.

Meanwhile, a colossal entity like the Technology Association had its Chief Executive and her own master running over to suck up to her just to win favor with Brother Qiye.

Qi Baishi drew a deep breath, puffed out her chest, and walked out.

Ahead of her, her former mentor now wore a warm, amicable smile, bearing no resemblance to the cold, scolding poker face of the past.

"Master," Qi Baishi greeted.

After all, he had raised her for several years, and she still felt a sense of gratitude.

Hearing this, Ding Wen's smile turned slightly awkward.

"I wouldn't dare. You've always been exceptionally gifted and brilliantly talented. My coming here this time is to bring you some gifts."

With that, Ding Wen handed Qi Baishi a parcel.

"Inside are some of my treasured forging manuscripts and insights gathered over decades of experience. Put them to good use."

Hearing this, Qi Baishi was struck dumb with astonishment.

"This... this..."

She was utterly shocked.

These were her mentor's prized possessions! He was actually willing to hand them over. Although such knowledge could be copied, he generally never imparted them unless it was to a disciple he deeply valued.

Qi Baishi hesitated to take it.

Beside them, the Chief Executive urged, "Take it! It's your mentor's good intention."

At the same time, the Chief Executive gave Ding Wen a look that clearly conveyed, *You certainly know how to play the game*.

Qi Baishi glanced at Wen Shuhong, who nodded in approval.

Only then did Qi Baishi carefully accept and secure the parcel.

Across from her, Ding Wen spoke again.

"Little Baishi, if there's anything you don't understand in the future, feel free to come ask me. If you have any forging needs, you can also come to the Technology Association to find me. Anything is fine."

Qi Baishi widened her eyes and nodded slightly.

She thought to herself that Brother Qiye was truly incredible.

Scarcely a few days had passed, and he had already forced her former mentor to come knocking with a flattering smile.

As expected of a great大佬!

Qi Baishi smiled knowingly.

"Then... I'll be heading back?"

Clutching the books, she scurried away like a wisp of smoke deep into the interior of Ideal Island.

Only Ding Wen and the Chief Executive were left stranded awkwardly in place.

"So... after taking the items, she didn't even bother asking if we had anything we needed her to do?"

"Is this what an unworldly, naive girl is like?"

The Chief Executive and Ding Wen shared a helpless look.

"Though it yielded no immediate result, we've at least established contact with an important figure around Lin Qiye, haven't we?"

"When Lin Qiye returns today, Qi Baishi will mention this, and Lin Qiye will understand our intentions. When we pay another visit then... success won't be far off."

The Chief Executive smiled knowingly.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Lin Qiye was currently searching for demons within the Wang family estate.

Because the Wang family boasted a population exceeding ten million, the workload was immense; for Lin Qiye to filter them out one by one would require at least a full day.

Noticing Lin Qiye's contemplative expression, Alliance Leader Wang could not help asking.

"Mr. Lin, can this be finished within a day?"

"Since I gave my word, naturally I can."

Seated in an armchair with a calm expression, Lin Qiye leisurely sipped his fragrant tea.